The Wolf
by PianoxLullaby
Summary: Namine finds herself hypnotized by Ryo Bakura and draws him daily. Little does she know there's a wolf hiding deep within him, waiting to eat her up.
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

She often found herself staring at the curious boy from behind the blonde veil she wove across her face. She found him in her sketchbook on nearly every page and each time he had the same, faint smile. Except for the one. That day, he was more rigid and cold. Naminé found herself dreaming of it still, waking in a pool of sweat and uneasiness.

Every day, she went to that park in the middle of the darkest part of the forest. It was the only place she'd ever seen him, and he'd become her muse. Some days, she'd curse herself for her pitiful attempts at learning him. A normal person would have introduced themselves, but she was too much of a coward. Instead, she learned people. She studied them from afar and wrote her own versions of their lives in her head. Naminé was a learner.

It never occurred to Naminé that the boy might introduce himself. No one had ever been interested in her much. She was far too skinny-awkwardly skinny. Her flesh was pale and her head was down-turned. Naminé liked to think herself a watchful ghost of the forest; not quite there to anyone but herself.

When Ryo asked for her name she didn't utter a sound. His very closeness both frightened and flattered her. Part of her felt like he knew. He was very cautious around her. Every move he made was gentle and subtle, like he was afraid she might fly away like a fragile butterfly. Despite her silence, he wouldn't leave her side.

Naminé could feel his eyes on her, and especially on her sketchbook even as she kept her eyes downward. He held his hand out for her to hand him her most prized possession. Hesitantly, she put the book in his hands, heart pounding, eyes turned away for fear of rejection.

The silence between them beat Naminé over the head mercilessly. She found herself on the verge of tears, her nerves getting the better of her. Never before had she had so much human interaction and she had no idea how to handle it. Her shyness had crippled her and she cursed herself for being that way.

Ryo took her hand in both his and kissed it gently. Naminé felt that he, too, understood her loneliness, and she kissed his hands back.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Okay, so, this is heavily inspired by The Path, David Firth, Autumn Christian, a Russian artist on deviantART, Boards of Canada, and many other things. One night I thought about how cute Ryo and Namine would be as a couple, so I just couldn't help myself. This was originally supposed to be more romantic, but I'm finding that it's going to turn more and more into a horror-type fiction as it goes. So... yeah.

I hope you enjoy! 3 Thanks for your time!

~Lully


	2. Marluxia

**Marluxia**

The children didn't talk much. Silence was more than golden between the two; the others' company was all they needed. Company was all they'd ever really wanted.

But soon, Naminé noticed the strawberry-headed gardener staring. His gaze made her squeamish and uncomfortable like a sour pit in her stomach. She found herself drawing that gaze, captivated by her own discomfort in it. Eventually, she noticed he only stared when Ryo got close.

One day, Ryo didn't come to the park. Illness, Naminé guessed, a sinking feeling in her chest. That was when the gardener approached her, his stare even more penetrating up close.

She squirmed away from him in her seat, clutching desperately onto her sketchbook like it would save her from him. His eyes of ice sent chills down her spine and his finger, so delicately tracing the blade of his scythe, made her uneasy.

He asked for her sketchbook with an open hand, and unable to argue, she delivered it to him. The gardener wrote lightly and swiftly his name onto a blank page. Marluxia, as beautiful as the flowers there.

Naminé looked up at him questioningly. She pointed to a drawing of Ryo as if to ask Marluxia why he seemed to dislike him so. He told her that boy was a monster.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Short Chapter. Introducing Marluxia as the creepy as hell but good, shirtless gardener of the park. Also foreshadowing.

~Lully


	3. Warning

**Warning**

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><p>There was this girl in the mirror. Naminé started talking to her often, wishing with all her being that she could be that girl with the pink hair and the sun-kissed skin. For now, she would call her Kairi. Kairi didn't say much that Naminé didn't.<p>

One day, Naminé visited Ryo at his home in Ghosttown. It was dark because there was only one window and he had covered it with a tattered cloth. His home was stuffy and small; only one room with a small mattress and small blankets thrown about it in knots. The only thing on the wall was a mirror used to make the room look bigger.

Ryo held Naminé in his arms, his mind on other things as she scribbled in the dim light. She went to draw herself but drew Kairi instead.

Naminé looked up at the boy. She knew he wasn't himself, his grip tightening on her. She grew frightened when the look in his eyes became fierce like some sort of forest monster. Her hand reached to caress his face, but the savage look it held did not fade. She called his name, her voice faint and hesitant. She was reminded of Marluxia's words.

_That boy is a monster._

She called his name again, and suddenly the monster-Ryo vanished, and her soft-Ryo returned. He pushed her away, his voice kind, and begged her to leave at once.

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><p><strong><span>Author's Note:<span> Got the third chapter up. It introduces Kairi and Yami Bakura. Kairi will be more important later, just pay attention to what I've written about her so far for hints. I think I'll put some more RyoxNamine luvvins in the next Chapter... maybe... if it works out. I'm mostly making this up as I go so I can get to the parts I already have planned.**

**Thanks for reading! Please review 3**

**~Lully**


	4. Heartbeat

**Heartbeat**

The girl in the mirror was always Kairi. That awkwardly skinny blonde girl didn't show herself around Naminé anymore. She rather enjoyed the change in scenery. Naminé was smiling now, even, in private. The artist would giggle at the redhead, swaying her hips back and forth and curling her hair around her finger as the dust in the sunlight from the open windows would flutter about between them. It was very fairytale-like.

But the nights... those nightmares of a beastly Ryo were back again, and more vivid than the sun's reflection on glass. The dreams were like glass. Everything was so pointy and her skin was so easily punctured and flayed. Words were shrill frequencies that scratched at her eardrums like cat's claws. And that heartbeat, _her_ heartbeat. It made her so anxious, like the sound of it made her adrenalin pump, like she was encouraging the tempo to speed. The dreams were so claustrophobic. Like Ryo's apartment. Like Naminé's head. Like Marluxia's stare.

Naminé could barely think around the park anymore. The shwing of Marluxia's scythe on the weeds always broke her bubble. Eventually, she didn't even bother opening her sketchbook; her concentration was too scattered anymore, and every time she went to draw her thoughts, she drew Kairi in pieces with a black silhouette of Ryo eating her limbs. Her own drawings frightened her to the point of tears. She hated the hands that made those awful things. She cut them to bits with the paper like an owner rubbing a dog's nose in its mess. Her hands would learn to never do those things again. They must be punished.

And where was Ryo in all this? His body was contorted in the back alley—not dead, but lethargic, nonetheless. The boy barely remembered how he'd come to be there in the first place. He really didn't care to know, anyways.

By the time Naminé had found him, it was pouring rain. He looked up at her, she looked down at him, bags under their eyes. They were both so terribly alone and frightened.

Naminé fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around his body tight as too-small belts. She was drowning in his wet hair, but she would rather die than be alone. She would rather die.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Yay, a longer chapter for this fic! I'm pretty happy with this one and I think it's my favorite of the ones I've written so far and I'm excited to write the next chapter. I'm finally really getting into main plot of the story, the really big part, the whole reason I wanted to write this piece. Oh, and this fic won't be longer than 10 chapters, if it even reaches that many, if anyone was wondering.

Thanks for reading!

~Lully


	5. Big Bad

**Big Bad**

For hours, the queer pale children traced the folds in the others' clothes, whispering sweet nothings in a melodic rhythm back and forth. Like long, skinny fingers dancing weightlessly on the high keys of the grand piano. They shared a closeness that was so alien to their solitary nature that it almost unnerved them, shook them, weakened them. Naminé and Ryo clinged to each other in desperate need, the sweet smell of Marluxia's flowers intoxicating and the butterflies hypnotizing.

Naminé didn't wait till morning to rise, her sleep disturbed by the chill of the night and the absence of her beautiful Ryo. She stumbled to her feet, head still dizzy and clouded with the sand of the dream-man. Her mouth mumbled incoherent ramblings while she stepped along the forest paths, timid and unsure. Everything was so sinister in the dark. The trees had become like arachnids with claws, the woodland creatures were demons with eyes of fire, and the paths were all liars.

She couldn't recall how she arrived in town. Second nature, she guessed, mostly in reassurance. Somehow, the town was even more sinister than the forest. It was completely empty, but she couldn't help but feel eyes stabbing at her from all directions. Omnipotent and cruel eyes.

Teeny-tiny Naminé started running. She ran to the alley where she had found her ill Ryo the night before. Everything around her grew darker and darker as she went and that heartbeat from her dreams... it was sounding from all around her. Just like the dreams, the nightmares, the anxiousness it caused only encouraged it, only drove it faster and faster and faster and louder and louder and louder! Red fell from her dainty nose and her eyes so open to the world they were burning. No more! No more! Make it stop!

The alley, too still against the journey there, echoed her breaths, her body doubled over and her eyes staring at the oozing blisters on her feet, her sandals worn and dirty. Peripheral vision revealed Ryo at the other end of the darkness. But that look... those fierce, hungry eyes. He wasn't... Ryo.

Namine looked harder. His hair was straight but feathered out, opposite of Ryo's soft waves. The once pearly and delicate bones of the mouth were rigid and sharp like rusty razors and broken glass. He stood with power, his body language smooth, beautiful and yet so unreadable. And those eyes, they seemed to glow from behind those long, beautiful eyelashes of white. Similar to Marluxia's, but they kept some sort of tempting beauty that called to Naminé's insides.

His lip curled, revealing gums like a beasts. "Naminé," he whispered, his gruff voice cooing and bouncing off the walls, dancing into her ears and floating around her head. "Pretty Naminé, fragile Naminé, curious Naminé..."

She didn't notice him stepping closer to her. The world around her already seemed to be distorted, contorting in all sorts of terrifying manners, the walls melting and the sky burning.

His smile started consuming his face and his eyes bled red and glowed like the flame. "I will** EAT YOU**. _**I WILL EAT YOU**_." The words became frequencies that stabbed her eardrums, they stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. Her voice had broken, like a mute movie in black and white. Who was this monster, this wolf in Ryo's clothing?

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>OMGAH, I was so excited to write this part because Yami Bakura was one of the main reasons I wanted to write this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, only a few more left. Thanks for reading!

~Lully


	6. Deadly

**Deadly**

She ran, breathing hard until air was like poison. Namine could taste red on her tongue, and it was so revolting. The space around her grow smaller and smaller until it felt like but on small path of blackness. And the ground at her feet, she could feel it quaking at the monster's erratic chase.

Ryo was down on all fours and his limbs seemed to sprout like trees. The sound of his hungry breaths made hers short. This was worse than the nightmares.

"I WILL **EAT YOU, _EAT YOU, EAT YOU_!**"

The world cracked at his claws and his cries. Namine was aflame, it felt. How was this happening? She was a pretty, well loved, red-headed girl with sun-kissed skin. Bad things didn't happen to beautiful girls, Namine thought.

Pretty little Namine's knees gave way, gave her to the beast, gave her to a grim fate. His rusty razor teeth grinded gleefully and his eyes, practically pouring red, gazed at her tiny little body. Namine's chest felt compressed, her heart beating from the other side. She wanted to cry out. She wanted to black out.

"You look good enough to **EAT!**" he grinned, tracing his tongue over his teeth, his dirty claws reaching for his prize. his touch was violating and cold. Timid Namine wriggled and squirmed, her stomach queezy and her skin clammy. She hated his touch. She hated his closeness, and she hated his mask.

His jaw opened wide and she hoped he would take her in one gulp. The smell on his breath, fouler than any stench the girl could contemplate. It was nearly as violating as his touch. She wanted so badly to crawl out of her skin, shed it all off and fly far, far away from there. His limbs wrapped around her like a straight jacket, pressing her against him, crushing her ribs, suffocating her. There would be no flying far, far away.

Kairi shut her eyes tight. She drown herself in her tears, in the water from his salivating saw-jaw. The razors cut her skin, made red stain on her frilly white dress, drip from her lips, drip to her toes at the tips.

But soon the jacket loosed its grip and the razors felt comforting. Not razors at all, actually.

She opened her eyes, blurred from the water, stressing to see if it could be her Ryo. His lips where glossed in the red and his lashes were dripping wet.

Sobs. Shaking. That's all they could manage.


	7. Identity

**Identity**

Clarity faded, thoughts blurred like the whirl of winds. She wasn't even sure she should trust her eyes. Straining and caving, gasping and shaking. Was that blonde hair... or strawberry? Pretty little Kairi never had bleached blonde, washoud out hair. She was never so dull, never so preposterously, painfully ghostly.

The mirror must've been broken. It was clouded, clearly.

Drowning... drowning. Since when was air like water? Namine didn't remember being a fish. Fish... fishy... gasp... gasping... choking.

Dying.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>My apologies for the late update. Originally, this part was a lot different, but I wanted it to be very descriptive of Namine's crisis within herself. The story is cooling down a little now, and I still have to decide how exactly I want this story to end. I really do hope you guys enjoy this, and please review! Even to just tell me you're following the story. It helps push me to continue writing it, actually. I've never really finished a longer fanfiction before, and I'd like to. :)

Thanks so much!

~Lully


	8. Leap

**Leap**

She wasn't accustomed to wearing jewelry, but this hemp necklace suited her. She didn't like heights, much; she thought she might jump. The forest cried around her, heartbreaking and solitary.

Drowning... drowning. Choking on the streams from the tops of her cheeks. Shaking... shaking. So terribly cold she contorted. A leaf in the forest, just barely attatched.

With a leap of faith, everything would be better.

Gasp and point leg out. Look up and just let go. Just let it _all_ go, and rebuild yourself. Clean canvas and fresh paints. Don't look back.

The stand below her unsteady feet shook, back and forth, threatening her skinny ankles. She was gonna fly, she knew she could.

A sob so startling her heart sank. She was so sure, but... there was another.

_Don't look back. _She looked. And there he stood, bruised and decaying. A beautiful zombie of sorts with water pouring down his bloodied face, teeth chattering from pain. He knew exactly who she was and what she had become, and she knew the same of him.

He took the hemp necklace from her. She was too pretty, and didn't need such jewelry.

He took her down from the wooden stand. She was afraid of heights and she'd hurt herself if she jumped.

She broke in his arms, but he held her together. He comforted her, and yet, she couldn't stop screaming. Screams from deep within. Resentful and horrified screams. Why did she love this monster? Why did he come to love her?

They were one in the same.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>It's about damn time I got something a little more poetic down for a chapter. I mean, that was kind of the whole point of writing this, was to tell a story in a manner similar to a children's illustrated book. I still don't believed I've quite captured that feeling, but hopefully the story is still good. Please review! Only a few more chapters before the story is completed.

~Lully


	9. Empty

**Empty**

Ryo told her stories of herself; stories of Namine. They were lonely little stories that both bothered and comforted her. She would stare off, stare at her bony little fingers as he went on with the stories. They felt empty.

Marluxia watched them, eyes constant; still penetrating as they stared nearly through the children. He could see the distance between them, so unlike their nature from before. Namine and Ryo kept apart, but yet, they remained close, for who else would learn to love such broken and empty souls? Who else could love such monsters.

Ryo's eyes hid behind his white veil. His heart whimpered in tempo with hers. Fluttering weakly at her touch. Crumbling, surrendering at his-self.

Quiet... and empty. Even as Marluxia stared, even as Ryo told her tales, everything was so quiet and empty.

Namine's empty hands took the pen at her heel. Painted across her face, painted along her arms and legs. It was all she had in sanity. Even she had two faces now.

And it rained. It poured from above the canopy and crashed on their crowns.

And Marluxia stared.

And Ryo faded.

And Namine let it rain.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> The next chapter is the last. Will she choose the path of needles? Or the path of pins?

Or maybe... she won't take either.

~Lully


	10. Farewell

**Farewell**

****What is a good-bye to a ghost? Namine thought. Is there even such a thing?

Little Namine found herself a fountain of despair, tears everflowing, dripping from her lashes. She looked one last time at the park she had painted for herself, the people she had learned. Namine saw the canvas had faded into a murky watercolorland that she no longer desired to call home. Interaction with the people was her very demise.

Pretty little Namine wasn't meant to socialize, wasn't meant to have friends, wasn't meant to feel love and be loved in return. She was a misfit shadow of white ghostliness doomed to a lifetime of loneliness.

Marluxia stared as she made her final farewells. She spoke to no one and kept her head downturned as she always had before. He watched as sadness swept over her; a sadness followed by fear.

Ryo watched, too. His beating heart bled, desperate for her company, and deep within, the beast scratched at his belly, demanding freedom and the bitty bones of that ghost girl.

She was so tempted to return to her Ryo, so desperate as he was to be by his side. But she trembled with terror in his presence. Namine was now a page torn in two, a siamese twin split and slit. She was running in two different directions, each part of her waiting for the other to follow.

Ryo held her wrists tightly in his grip, pleading with her to stay. Namine thought she might drown in the uncomfort and the uneasiness that consumed her. She thought she might drown in his scary love. He was a frantic mess, a jubilee of jarring desolation and desperation. She fought his clutching hands that clasped to her dainty dress.

She ran deep in the woods, tripping and slipping. Ryo chased not far behind. His heart was changing on him.

"Namine! Return to me, Namine!" the voice cried. It was sharp, a pang in her ears. The sound crawled up her back and held tight to her shoulders.

The beast cried for her, begged her, beckoned her. His voice turned to a growl that grew louder and louder as he approached. The fear was clouding her, fogging the path. She stumbled over a stump, knees bleeding and sandals worn. Her foot was caught in the roots, and he was too near for her to run. This was her demise.

Farewell.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: It's finally done! Thank you everyone for reading! I'm going to continue editing this story and would love it if you guys could offer constructive criticism! <strong>


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